8.1 Compatibilities between the ISO 639 model and ISO 12620
8.1.3 Description of an ISO 639 language identifier
The Description Section of a data category (ISO 12620) provides the capability for a single item to have multiple names, with each name organized according to the language within which it is used (see Figure 2).
One or more names may be given in one or more languages; however, there must be at least one name. In ISO 12620, the analogy is drawn with the terminological metamodel (ISO 16642) where a concept has multiple terms organized by the language in which they are used.
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Name Section (*) Language Section (*)
Description (#)
Figure 2 — Metamodel of ISO 12620 underlying the DCIF
A simple example of this multiplicity is provided for data from ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2. For information about languages identified by ISO 639-2 gla or ISO 639-1 gd, within Description, we have:
[Language Section] /language/ = /eng/
[Name Section] /name/ = Gaelic
[Name Section] /name/ = Scottish Gaelic [Language Section] /language/ = /fra/
[Name Section] /name/ = gaélique
[Name Section] /name/ = gaélique écossais
For the purposes of this part of ISO 639, the item being described, i.e. the language, is named in one or more languages but does not need to be named in its own language.
/broader data category/ can be used within the Description Section to associate language data categories with more broadly descriptive language data categories. An example is taken from ISO 639-5 for part of the expansion of the Indo-European languages involving the West Germanic language family.
Alpha-3 Parent alpha-3 English French
ine Indo-European languages indo-européennes, langues
gem ine Germanic languages germaniques, langues
ine gem West Germanic germanique occidental
The data is expanded to the description shown below in which each section is identified in square brackets in bold:
[Data Category]
[Administration Information Section]
[Administration Record] /identifier/ = West Germanic [Description] /broader data category = /Germanic languages/
[Language Section] /language/ = /eng/
[Name Section] /name/ = West Germanic [Language Section] /language/ = /fra/
[Name Section] /name/ = germanique occidental
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[Data Category]
[Administration Information Section]
[Administration Record] /identifier/ = Germanic languages [Description] /broader data category = /Indo-European languages/
[Language Section] /language/ = /eng/
[Name Section] /name/ = Germanic languages [Language Section] /language/ = /fra/
[Name Section] /name/ = germaniques, langues [Data Category]
[Administration Information Section]
[Administration Record] /identifier/ = Indo-European languages [Description]
[Language Section] /language/ = /eng/
[Name Section] /name/ = Indo-European languages [Language Section] /language/ = /fra/
[Name Section] /name/ = indo-européennes, langues
This description can be implemented within the DCIF. Further descriptive information should be added to the Description Section including the following.
⎯ /definition/: should be used to provide a definition in the data category registry. As far as possible, the definition should be language and theory neutral. This information is mandatory for each DEC. It may be repeated to provide translations of the definition in other working languages. When necessary, /definition/
may be refined by a /source/ and a /note/.
⎯ /explanation/: can be used to provide additional information about the data category that would not be relevant for a definition (e.g. more precise linguistic background for the use of the data category).
⎯ /example/: the use of examples should be limited to those that illustrate the data category in general, excluding language specific usages, which should be documented at Object language level.
⎯ /source/: may refine /definition/, /explanation/, or /example/ to indicate the source from which the corresponding text has been borrowed or adapted. When a definition is compiled from more then one source, this field can be repeated. The /source/ field should not be used alone in the Description Section.
⎯ /profile/: shall be identified as Language description.
⎯ /conceptual domain/: since language identifiers are considered to be simple data categories, there are no possible values for conceptual domain.
⎯ /note/: additional information associated with the Description Section, excluding technical information that would normally be described within /explanation/.
⎯ /broader data category/: shall be used to refer to a more encompassing language identifier. This mechanism can be used to cross-refer between identifiers across arbitrary boundaries, for example to make the familial link from English (eng or en) to West Germanic (gmw).
The last description above, with integration across administrative boundaries, presents one minor difficulty:
cross-reference across systems indicates use of the unique identifier from the combination of RA:ID:Ver. This gives two alternatives:
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© ISO 2010 – All rights reserved 19 [Data Category]
[Administration Information Section]
[Administration Record] /identifier/ = English
[Description] /broader data category = /West Germanic/
[Language Section] /language/ = /eng/
[Name Section] /name/ = West Germanic [Language Section] /language/ = /fra/
[Name Section] /name/ = germanique occidental or
[Data Category]
[Administration Information Section]
[Administration Record] /identifier/ = English
[Description] /broader data category = /639-5.West Germanic.1/
[Language Section] /language/ = /eng/
[Name Section] /name/ = West Germanic [Language Section] /language/ = /fra/
[Name Section] /name/ = germanique occidental [Data Category]
[Administration Information Section]
[Administration Record] /identifier/ = West Germanic [Description] /broader data category = /Germanic languages/
[Language Section] /language/ = /eng/
[Name Section] /name/ = West Germanic [Language Section] /language/ = /fra/
[Name Section] /name/ = germanique occidental This description can be implemented within the DCIF.
In the Description Section, the Language Section level is likely to contain repeated entries as demonstrated above. The following data categories will be used in this section.
⎯ /language/: shall be used to identify the language being described (i.e. object language, as defined in ISO 16642). Values for this data category shall be those of ISO 639 such that an identifier could be described potentially using any kind of media.
⎯ /definition/: to define the data category when it occurs in a specific system within a language, so that it impacts on the accuracy of the reference definition.
⎯ /example/: provides an example of how the data category is used for the current object language.
⎯ /explanation/: additional explanation specific to the use of the data category in the object language.
⎯ /source/: see Description Section.
⎯ /conceptual domain/: since language identifiers are considered to be simple data categories, there are no possible values for conceptual domain.
⎯ /note/: additional information associated with the Object language level, excluding technical information that would normally be described within /explanation/.
The Name Section shall be used to record an appellation for the data category in the object language elicited at Language section level. The Name Section may be repeated within a Language Section as demonstrated above. The following descriptive elements are associated with the Name Section level.
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⎯ /name/: one word or multi-word unit used to refer to the data category for the corresponding object language as expressed in the encompassing Language Section. Names given to a data category shall not be used for the purpose of identifying a data category (see /identifier/).
⎯ /name status/: with the following conceptual domain: {/standardized name/, /preferred name/, /admitted name/, /deprecated name/, /superseded name/} (taken as such from ISO/IEC 11179).